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Before we snuck a grill onto our balcony one glorious day last May, I would regularly show up at friends-with-grills homes with prepared pizza dough and a few toppings in the summer; I love grilled pizza so much that I’d feed a crowd just to get my fix. It was one of the first things I made when we bought our own. The benefits of cooking pizza outside are manifold. With heat circulating all around the pizza and the dough resting on open grates instead of a flat tray, I find that you can get more texture — crisp on the outside but staying stretchy within — and flavor — charred spots that will immediately remind you of your favorite brick-oven pizzeria, without heating up your apartment, pretty much the last thing any of us want to do in the summer. Plus, it’s really quick. Once your dough is purchased or prepared, you could be eating your pizza in 10 minutes; not bad for a homemade dinner after a long day.

I’ve already discussed at length my favorite homemade margherita — my preference is for mozzarella that is packed dry, not the fancy stuff in water (despite what you see in the early pictures; promise you’ll save the fancy, ultra-tender stuff for serving cold and fresh with appetizers and salads, please) and for “raw” sauces, blended from canned or fresh tomatoes with some liquid poured off and then doctored up and seasoned well, for the best flavor — and I follow the same rules here. In the oven but especially on the grill, you must keep your toppings thin, light, and pre-sautéed or they simply will not cook before the crust is done; it also leads to puddled and wet pizza tops, something I’m sure we’ve all experienced.

Yesterday Sam Sifton announced that the cooking section of the New York Times is going to go behind a paywall. Readers and cooks can sign up for a 28-day free trial, but after that they have to pay five dollars a month to get access to recipes. If you already have a New York Times subscription, you can access the cooking site as a part of that package.

This change, according to Sifton, is not to punish readers, but to let editors and recipe developers continue to produce an excellent product. “The work we do is expensive, and we want to do more of it. We travel ceaselessly, and cook every day. We test our recipes relentlessly. We photograph and make videos about them, we think beautifully,” says Sifton in the announcement.

One of the greatest things about the Fourth of July is the food. It’s usually everything you want to eat at this time of year presented without too much fanfare (that gets saved for the fireworks). Since most of us prepare the same things every year — the grilled corn, the ribs, the potato salad — the dishes get perfected with every candle added to America’s birthday cake. Here are those classics all in one place. Consider them a menu of sorts — a hub you can use to double check details, or inspiration if this is your first time hosting a bash. This is only the tip of the iceberg of the Independence Day eats. Once you’ve perused the classics, it’s time to check out our collection of recipes for sides and desserts. There are a few wild card ideas thrown into the mix, because you never know when you might need 10 ways to top a corndog.

The trademark speed at which Rory and Lorelai speak in the Gilmore Girls franchise can be attributed to a globally loved bean juice (more commonly known as coffee). The two characters are seen frequenting Luke’s Diner for their regular cup of java throughout the series, which was on air from 2000 to 2007 and later revived for a season by Netflix last November.

While both the town of Stars Hollow and the character Luke Danes are fictional elements of the show, actor Scott Patterson — who plays Danes on the series — is turning art into reality by launching his own line of coffee, reports Hello Giggles. Prepare to freak out a little bit.

Brace yourselves, Starbucks fans — the coffee chain has a great summer “buy one, get one” special going on right now that will let you and a friend enjoy an iced beverage for the cost of just one drink.

The BOGO deal, which Starbucks is offering to celebrate summer, will let you receive a complimentary iced espresso beverage of equal or lesser value for free when you order a grande iced espresso beverage. The special will run at participating stores in the United States from June 27 to July 2. But the promo is only active during select hours in the day — 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. local time.

For close to a decade now Greek yogurt has been king of the dairy aisle. In fact, the creamy, thick yogurt reportedly accounts for nearly 50 percent of yogurt sales in the United States. But the next time you head to the grocery store, you might want to try something new. There’s another type of yogurt that’s about to change the way you do breakfast.

Weeknight get-togethers are always a bright spot in a regular week, which makes them even more charming and fun. Looking forward to hosting friends or family for dinner during the week is all about planning an easy menu with help from a few make-ahead dishes and as few dishes as possible.

The grill is a great tool in executing both. You can marinate proteins or vegetables in advance and then cook most of your dinner on the grill, which cuts down on sides considerably. Here’s my menu for an easy weeknight barbecue, plus some tips and tricks for pulling it off with ease.

If you have a sweet tooth (and are an Amazon Prime member), prepare to be amazed. A few months ago, Amazon launched Prime Surprise Sweets — and basically told no one about it!

Maybe you’ve already heard of it? If so, you must run in some in-the-know circles! If you hadn’t heard about it, don’t feel so bad — we just found out about it last week! Keep reading to learn what exactly it’s all about.

There are a lot of good reasons to put two small jars of homemade hot fudge sauce in your fridge in approximately 10 minutes and possibly forever:
• Hot fudge sauce is the easiest thing on earth to make, and absolutely nothing from a squeeze bottle compares. Not even the stuff at local ice cream parlors, even the kinds that boast about ingredient origins and write their menus on chalkboard walls, are the same. I’m still grumpy about the time I was a gazillion months pregnant ordered hot fudge sauce and someone poured chocolate syrup over my ice cream. I resisted, however, waddling back there and showing them how to make it correctly. I’m sorry I do not behave as well with you.

• Proper hot fudge sauce is thick and shiny. You pour it over a scoop of ice cream and it quickly slides down the sides to form a fudge moat that scoop onto your spoon along with the melty ice cream around it and it’s intensely chocolaty and downright chewy and never gets old.
• It keeps forever, or at least for the remainder of the summer, even if it probably won’t survive that long.
• No matter how many times you rewarm it (we usually spoon a little in to a dish and microwave it for 10 seconds) and chill it again, it never splits or becomes grainy. It remains rich, shiny, and forgiving.
• It makes amazing host gifts. (That’s what the second jar is for.)